A few months ago, we reported how this year’s Hugo Awards were gamed by racists and misogynist bastards. Short story: the Hugo Awards are the most prestigious awards in science fiction and fantasy, and have for decades been a reliable and distinguished list of the best genre fiction published that year. Then a bunch of dicks got pissed that authors other than white dudes who vote Republican were winning awards and launched a campaign called “sad puppies” in order to rig the vote to get their voting slate to win.

Another group calling themselves the “rabid puppies” did a similar thing. Their members insist that there’s a distinction between them, and like to start splitting hairs, but the main way to sum up the difference is that one group is a bunch of assholes and the other a group of colossal assholes.

For decades, Hugo voting has been an informal and non-competitive affair, and the rules reflected that. Anyone with membership could vote. And so these twats came along and organized voting blocks and launched a drive to get members to register just to vote the way they wanted. Yeah, they didn’t “break any rules” as their supporters like to crow. But that’s like claiming as a defense that you didn’t do anything illegal when you banged your wife’s sister. Congratulations, you’re still a fucking asshole.

So the “puppies” slates managed to dominate every single nominating category, including several major ones like “Best Novella” and “Best Short Story” in which they were the only nominations. And to be clear, we’re not talking about a group getting books they like on the list. We’re talking about a group getting record nominations for people who objectively have no business being anywhere near fiction awards.

People like Vox Day who was kicked out of the Science Fiction Writers Association for calling African-American author N.K. Jemisin “an educated, but ignorant half-savage,” author Teresa Nielsen Hayden a “fat frog,” and for arguing that women should not be allowed to use contraception because it destroys civilization. Or John C. Wright who compares homosexuals to termites and that “it is time to exterminate them”.

Yeah, they got nominations. In fact, Wright got six, more than any other writer in history.

And you can argue that their political views don’t mean that they’re bad writers, or that since I haven’t read their shit books that real publishers won’t even touch, then I technically can’t know that they don’t deserve the nominations. But I’ve got better things to do than explain the logical fallacies inherent to that argument, like telling you the results of the official Hugo voting.

I’m usually adverse to imagery that evokes pain to animals, but let’s just say that mom and dad took the puppies to a farm in the country where they can run to their heart’s content. I mean that they got hit by an 18 wheeler and dragged six miles across the county line.

Not a single puppy-backed candidate won an award. Not. One.

But what about the five categories in which only puppy-backed candidates were nominated? The voters voted “No Award” for those categories.

There is already bitching from the douchebag puppy movements that voting was unfair (for fanatics all votes are rigged except the ones they win) followed by the obligatory threats of taking their ball home and having their own awards. For the love of Saint Asimov, why is it that no one who threatens to go Galt ever actually does?

The winner for Best Fan Writer, Laura J. Mixon said in her acceptance speech: �There�s room for all of us here. But there�s no middle ground between �We belong here� and �No you don�t.� I believe we must find non-toxic ways to discuss our conflicting points of view.�